It is a stark contrast to the announcement in 2010 movie The King’s Speech, in which Colin Firth is given little time to prepare

Writers spent days working on the famous King’s Speech as they ­struggled to find a way to tell the nation we were going to war with Germany, a forgotten draft reveals.

King George VI announced the outbreak of the Second World War on September 3, 1939.

But a draft that has emerged 74 years on shows leaders had been preparing for the worst at least nine days earlier.

It is a stark contrast to the way the announcement is made in 2010 movie The King’s Speech, in which Colin Firth’s stammering character is given little time to prepare.

The typed document, entitled Draft King’s Speech, is dated August 25 and begins with the line: “In this grave hour, perhaps the gravest in our history...”

It
accuses Germany of being a bully that wants to dominate the world by brute force and stresses that “we are fighting for the principles of freedom and justice”.

It is the second draft and was kept by Harold Vale Rhodes, who had written the
first attempt. In a note in the margin, he criticised the sentence length and hinted his should be used instead.

In the final, clearer, version – read on the day Hitler invaded Poland – the tone stayed the same, but some content was changed and it did not mention Germany but merely “our enemies”.

Dr Gabriel Heaton, of auctioneers Sotheby’s, said: “It brings to life a pivotal moment in British history. You get a sense of the preparations and the struggle to find the right words to prepare the nation for the terrible fight that lay ahead.”

The
draft – expected to fetch £4,000 in London on December 10 – was acquired by an unnamed owner in a load of paperwork belonging to Mr Rhodes, who died in 1970.